Sunday, March 4, 2012

Island of Prehistoric Lizards

An unidentified two-legged
prehistoric reptile climbs up the
chasm wall in King Kong (1933).

The rocky coast of Komodo Island, circa 1926.

From Dragon Lizards of Komodo by W. Douglas Burden,
published in 1927.

From Dragon Lizards of Komodo by W. Douglas Burden,
published in 1927. Photo by Mrs. Burden.

Note article: "Stalking the Dragon Lizard on the
Island of Komodo" by W. Douglas Burden,The National Geographic Magazine, August 1927.

Part Two, Bringing 'em Back Alive

“The world is getting smaller every year. I mean it’s becoming too civilized. I can remember when the world was a grand old
place—a place full of unexplored lands, choked with adventure. In those days, Schoedsack and I used to run
away to the ends of the world, confident of finding real motion picture
material. But now, what’s a fellow to
do? Where is he to go?”

Merian
C. Cooper

NBC
radio interview

As an independently wealthy
explorer and a trustee at the AmericanMuseum of Natural
History, W. Douglas Burden shared Cooper’s feelings. He was
always on the lookout for adventure.
In the mid-1920s, he heard that P.O. Ouwens, director of the ZoologicalMuseum
in Java, was able to confirm the long-standing rumors that there were giant lizards living on KomodoIsland. Hearing this news, Burden felt the call of the wild.

With the backing of the AmericanMuseum
of Natural History, Burden organized an expedition in 1926, promising to return
from Komodo with a living dragon. Assisted
by a herpetologist, a cameraman, his wife, and 15 Malay workers, Burden found
the giant monitor lizards (measuring up to ten feet in length) and brought two back for
exhibition at the Bronx Zoo. Unable to
adjust to their new environment and life in captivity, the Komodo dragons died
behind bars.

In late 1929, Cooper spent time with Burden at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History, sharing tales
of their incurable romantic love of wild places. According to Cooper biographer Mark Cotta Vaz
in his book Living Dangerously, Burden’s
stories of Komodo may have inspired significant elements of the King Kong narrative that was slowly evolving in
Cooper’s mind. Vaz quotes from letters
exchanged between Burden and Cooper in 1964 where Burden reminisced about their 1929 discussions:

“…I remember, for example, that you
were quite intrigued by my descriptions of prehistoric KomodoIsland
and the dragon lizards that inhabited it…
You especially liked the strength of words beginning with ‘K,’ such as
Kodak, KokiakIsland, and Komodo. It was then, I believe, that you came up with
the idea of Kong as a possible title for a gorilla picture. I told you that I liked very much the ring of
the word… and I believe that it was a combination of the King of Komodo phrase
in my book and your invention of the name Kong that led to the title you used
much later on, King Kong.”

Furthermore, Burden suggested that Cooper may have picked up on the young wife accompanying the explorer on the voyage and the death of the wild beasts in New York captivity when developing the Kong narrative.

Cooper’s response:

“Everything you say is right on the
nose. Boy, what a memory!”

Of course, the story that was forming in Cooper’s mind at
the time wasn’t quite Kong as we now
know it. Cooper seems to have been
thinking about shipping gorillas out to KomodoIsland
and then filming them battling the Komodo dragons. In 1929, Cooper hadn’t yet realized that there
might be ways to capture the wild places within the controlled settings of a
modern Hollywood film studio.

About 21 Essays

21 Essays is my cultural history blog. In 2007, I challenged myself to write 21 essays in 21 days on a single focused topic—the classic German silent film The Golem (1920).I liked that format and so I’m reviving it here as a way of exploring favorite things (movies, books, paintings, etc.) in depth.

About the Author

Lee Price is the Director of Development at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (Philadelphia, PA). In addition, he writes a tourism/history blog called "Tour America's Treasures" and recently concluded two limited-duration blogs, "June and Art" and "Preserving a Family Collection."

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"There's something I'm finding out as I'm aging--that I am in love with the world."